The porcine slaughter of the innocents

Author

Edward Lotterman
Agricultural Economist

Adjusted for inflation, in late 1998 hog prices broke through the
previous record lows set in the spring of 1933. As in 1933, some
farmers appealed to the government for relief and government took
some action. In 1998 the U.S. government announced increased purchases
of pork for use by the Armed Forces and for distribution to the
needy through community food shelves. In early January, 1999, Vice
President Al Gore also announced a $50 million program of direct
disaster payments to hog producers.

In 1933 as in 1998-99, the most important cause of low prices
was an excess of hogs. Farmers were simply producing more hogs than
consumers were willing to buy at a price that would give them all
profits. But rather than trying to increase demand as at present,
the Roosevelt administration took more direct action. It killed
baby pigs.

The action to reduce supply by killing some portion of the pigs
born in the spring of the year made good sense as part of the administration's
emergency efforts to raise prices and incomes for the rural poor.
But even before the advent of People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals and other animal rights movements, it was a public relations
disaster. In 1933 over one-third of US households had some member
out of work and many people experienced hunger. Killing hogs to
raise hog prices at such a time struck many as wrong-headed.

The administration's Agricultural Adjustment Act also provided
for the plowing under of a significant portion of the cotton crop,
which was already in the ground. But cotton seedlings are not as
photogenic as piglets, as Hollywood well knows, and destroying cotton
to raise prices never raised the same public outcry as that of killing
baby pigs.

Participation in the program was voluntary, and farmers were paid
for pigs that were killed. Most of the hogs killed were sent to
packing plants that contracted with the government. Some 5 million
light hogs, averaging 53 pounds, were simply "tanked" or processed
into inedible meat and bone meal. Sows, which were required to be
visibly pregnant for acceptance into the program, were processed
into meat that was donated to various local food relief programs.

Historical records show that some 6.4 million pigs and sows were
killed at an expenditure of $31 million. (Livestock Under
the AAA, The Brookings Institution, 1935.) Using the Consumer
Price Index, an equivalent amount today would be about $400 million
in 1998 dollars. A history of the program concluded that "it is
extremely difficult to estimate the effects of the measures on hog
prices," but said that perhaps prices were increased by $1.75 per
hundredweight, a 20 percent to 30 percent increase over what prices
had been before it's inception. The slaughter program was never
repeated, in part due to public outcry and because a system of contracting
with farmers not to produce was implemented in succeeding years.